The new Hodgman book is out in stores now; I received my Amazon'd copy yesterday. I'm going to go right out and say it could possibly be better than the last one, which is no easy feat. Among its many virtues is that on each page there is a little "page-a-day" factoid that will probably end up in a page-a-day calender next year. Allow me to retype my current favorite.

"November 3: 1957, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik II into orbit, bearing a sole passenger: the doomed space dog, Laika. Controversy eventually arose over the decision to send a stray puppy into a spacecraft that was designed to never be retrieved. But what may seem like cruelty overlooks the pure scientific fact that Laika was a very, very bad dog that deserved to die."